''Kłótnia przez zakład'' (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

for ''A Dispute over a Bet'') is a one-act

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

Karol Lipiński Karol Józef Lipiński (30 October 1790 – 16 December 1861) was a Polish music composer and virtuoso violinist active during the partitions of Poland. The Karol Lipiński University of Music in Wrocław, Poland is named after him. Life L ...

for a Polish

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by . It was written by Lipiński at an early point of his career, when he was a resident of Lwów (now

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

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), and staged at the city theater before 1814..
Teatr Polski we Lwowie (1780–1881)
' Lwów: Gubrynowicz i Schmidt, z Drukarni "Dziennika Polskiego", 1889. pp. 72–76.

Background

Text and music

The libretto was written by , who was the director of the Lviv Polish theatre since 1809. It is based on a Russian comedy ''The Sable Fur Coat'' (''Соболья шуба, или Спорь до слез, а об закладе не бейся'') by published in 1803. In a handwritten text of the libretto preserved at the National Ossoliński Institute in the Polish city of

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it has two different title pages with two different subtitles referring to its genre: ''Sceniczna fraszka'' and ''Komedyo-opera''. Jan Nepomucen Kaminski

was appointed for the post of the

first violin The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the most significant ...

and concertmaster at the

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

theater in 1810, aged only 20. Two years later he was appointed its conductor. Thus it was for his own use he composed his three only operas, one of them being ''Kłótnia przez zakład''. Around the same time he finished his three symphonies. He left Lviv in 1814. The overture made use of the famous Polish national tune '' Jeszcze Polska nie zgineła'', a fact that astonished listeners. Another piece of the opera, Starogdyrski's polonaise (''Gdzież się podział...''), became extremely popular in Lviv for many years. The manuscript of the libretto and an incomplete set of orchestral parts of the opera is held at the

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Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Several texts for the music numbers were printed in 1815 (''Rocznik Teatru Polskiego we Lwowie, 1814'').

Performances

The opera was definitely staged in Lviv in 1814, but the first performance took place earlier. It was well received by the public. The role of Sowizdrzalski was played by Antoni Benza, who joined the theatre in 1811. A much later performance in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

(23 August 1838) is also known, with the original title added (''Szuba sobolowa czyli Kłótnia przez zakład''). The opera was also known as ''Szuba sobolowa lub brylantowy pierścień albo Zakład o kłótnię'' (''The Sable Fur Coat, or, The Brilliant Ring, or, A Dispute over a Bet'').

Roles

Source:The roles are given as listed in the manuscript libretto, see the IMSLP page. *Pan Wąsokrętosz *Jego żona (''his wife'') *Sowizdrzalski, ich domowy przyjaciel (''their family friend'') *Gazeciarz (''newsboy'') *Żyd (''A Jew'') *Postylion (''postman'') *Kapitan Burda (''Captain Burda'') *Starogdyrski *Panna Tryndalewiczowna *Kupczyk (''merchant boy'')

References

External links

* * Karol Łopuszański (ed.)
Rocznik Teatru Polskiego we Lwowie (1814)
'. – Contains texts for 3 musical numbers of ''Kłótnia przez zakład'' (see pp. 22–25) {{Authority control Polish-language operas Operas by Karol Lipiński 1814 operas One-act operas Operas